English writing is super important for business. I can really see it more now than ever before.

Aside from China232, Add and I do some online consulting work for international brands. We work from anywhere in the world on our computers and we communicate mostly via email.

Often these emails go to the CEO, Marketing Director, and several other important people in the companies. These people care much more about the quality of ideas than about good grammar or vocabulary.

Some of the people in these companies speak English as a second language. Their English is quite good too. Many people have their MBA and have lived in the USA, Canada, or England for a few years. They speak and write in English everyday at work. There is still a problem…

I hate to say it, but it’s really easy to see who is a native speaker and who isn’t from reading only a few sentences of one email. Often these very intelligent people get ignored by the top people in the company because of language. As I said, their English is still pretty good, it’s just not quite good enough to really get noticed and move higher in the company.

It’s sad but it’s the truth. I keep seeing these hard working people earning less money than they should just because of their English. It’s weird. The bosses are not trying to be unfair, it’s just the way it works. The only solution I can see is to get better at English writing and communication.

Most (I think over 99%) of English learners get up to a certain level in English and then they stop trying to improve. People can understand their main ideas and no one corrects their mistakes anymore. The problem is that this level usually isn’t good enough for the real business world. Once you are in a company, which university you went to means almost nothing. It’s mostly about the “office politics” and the relationships you can form with other “major players” in the company. This is true with both big and small companies. If you want to build a good relationship and get respected from these people, you need to make sure that your writing is clear enough to really make people think. This isn’t easy since you are going to compete with native speakers. It’s possible, it’s just going to take some work.

We’re including a VIP writing section here to help with this important part of English learning. It’s no extra cost, just included in the $37 USD VIP fee that the members pay once a year. We’ll be here to push you and help you improve. I’ll make interesting writing assignments for you guys. I’ll read what you write and point out common mistakes that people keep making. Often these mistakes are quite small and subtle. If you promise to try your best and learn from my personal and honest advice, I guarantee you will improve a lot. This will really make a huge difference in your current or future career.

I’d love to hear your experiences and opinions about this topic. Don’t worry about making mistakes either, just write first. There is nothing to be embarrassed about. Confident people lead better lives anyway. Just try your best and learn from your mistakes.